What it actually is
Al Barari began in 2005, when the rest of Dubai was building upward in glass. Its founder did the opposite and planted. Today there are more than half a million trees and plants across roughly 15.3 million square feet of garden. The name is Arabic for wilderness, and for once the name is doing real work rather than marketing.
What that means on the ground is that you hear birds. Density is low, plots are large, and the planting is twenty years old rather than twenty months, so the shade is real shade. Themed gardens run through the community, Mediterranean groves, water gardens and woodland among them, with waterways and lakes threading between.
Where it sits
The position is better than people expect. Sixteen minutes to the Burj Khalifa, twenty to Downtown and DIFC, twenty to the airport, fifteen to Dubai Hills Mall. It sits between the city’s two airports rather than out beyond them.
Repton, Nord Anglia, Kings’ School and the Lycée Français are five to ten minutes away. For a good number of the families I have placed here, that was the deciding factor rather than the gardens.
What is there day to day
More than the planting. The Bay Health Club for training, with padel on the roof. Heart & Soul Spa. Club Emelle for padel, bowling and dinner. The Farm is the restaurant people know; The Mill is where you actually go for bread and coffee. There is a playground with one of the largest trampolines in the country, a kids’ club, an arcade, and enough retail that you are not driving out for small things.
My view
Al Barari is not for everyone, and it should not be. If you want a short walk to a beach club, or you like being in the middle of things, this is the wrong community and you will feel it by the second month.
What it does better than anywhere else in Dubai is quiet, mature planting and space. Twenty years of growth is the one thing a newer community cannot copy, however good the renders are. If that is what you are buying, there is no substitute for it. If it is not, I would point you elsewhere and save us both the drive.
